strings
by Cranberry Octopus
Summary: At first, Itachi thought that it was some kind of heaven or limbo. Or perhaps he was stuck in some sort of trance state before someone passes on to the afterlife.  Multi-chapter. Anthology.
1. The Scientist

_Strings_

By: **moldycookies**

* * *

In loving memory of Tom Amos

_September 1958 - February 2008_

* * *

Prologue: _The Scientist_

.

"Fortune favors the brave."

_Aeneid Virgil_

(70BC – 19BC)

* * *

Home. Such a foreign term. There wasn't a moment where he silently wished he was home, that things would be different, that he wouldn't be coming home to nothing. Pretending things that would never be was never a strong suit of his; convincing his little brother to throw away everything he knew about his brother was hard enough. Yet, he still pretended that it wasn't like this; everything was perfect and nothing could go wrong. Instead, it was a long term mission, maintained with the utmost secrecy and his mother – _oh_, his darling mother – would be waiting for him, dinner still warm and ready to be eaten. She would be smiling up at him with a –

"_Well done, Itachi."_

- smile. His father would look up from a mission or police report and nod in acknowledgement while his mother berated him for being so cold toward his eldest son, and then he would place his reports on the table and speak words of praise.

"_Good work, Itachi, I expect nothing less from the future clan head."_

Exactly like those ones. They were exactly like his father; neither a compliment nor an insult. This would normally annoy his mother and she would retaliate in Itachi's honor. His mother would then whip his father in the back of the head with a towel, urging him to shut up and eat his dinner and –

"_Stop talking about clan business at the dinner table."_

Then, and only then, he would be interrogated by his foolish little brother. Such innocence in a child should not be allowed. Sasuke's naiveté, Itachi had thought once, would be his ultimate downfall as an elite shinobi. But that never stopped his brother from being a little brother. His darling, beloved and foolish little brother would ask him if he was injured or if he learned a new jutsu from the enemy-nin or how the mission went or –

"_Can we go training, aniki?"_

Naturally, Itachi would agree if it was still light out. But his mother would insist that he was tired or should get a routine check-up at the hospital and when those excuses worked, he would tap his sweet, darling, beloved, foolish little brother's forehead and regretfully say –

"_Sorry, Sasuke, maybe next time."_

Now he was brought to another time – the last time – when he became dangerously close to his brother, blood-spattered and all, brought up a shaky hand that seemed to want his eyes and instead, tapped his forehead –

"_Sorry, Sasuke, this is the last time."_

- and wore that small, peaceful smile. Knowing that Sasuke had finally found his peace, that his little brother could finally rest and go back home, Itachi allowed himself to go. Finally, his duty as an older brother was done. Now Sasuke can go home with new eyes and peace in his heart, without knowing that all this was for him, that all the chaos was gone – he fainted. A pulse barely there, but still alive and breathing, but hardly making a sound.

He soon found himself angry. He was supposed to die so Sasuke could get his eyes; Sasuke was supposed to take his eyes, get married and revive the clan. That's what he had planned all along, putting months and months into planning every detail, making sure that there was no way anything could go wrong. But his planned failed. He wasn't supposed to seek revenge for his death; he wasn't supposed to be so foolish and find out the truth. Yet he did and Itachi had prepared himself, even for such occurrences like that.

When Itachi woke up from his coma, he realized he wasn't dead and that he wasn't blind, either. He could see clearly, clearer than before. That only meant one thing and he didn't want to come to terms with it. At first, Itachi thought that it was some kind of heaven or limbo. Or perhaps he was stuck in some sort of trance state before someone passes on to the afterlife. No – _no_, it wasn't supposed to happen like this; Sasuke was supposed to be in his place, not the other way around.

Someone shuffled to the left of him; he immediately went on guard. Itachi soon found that he couldn't move; he was exhausted of chakra and mortal energy. He was completely vulnerable at the moment and the only thing he could think was: _he should even be alive; he shouldn't have his brother's eyes_. He was supposed to be dead, not the other way around. He wasn't supposed to be alive; his disease should have killed him.

Why was he alive?

He moved his head in an attempt to alert the other person in the room. The room he was in was small and cramp. He supposed that he was in a small shack or cabin of some sort with limited or no ventilation. From where he was laying on the floor, he could see the door and a small window with a desk haphazardly pushed beneath it. There was a tiny lantern with a bunch of scrolls and writing utensils upon it. The person nursing him to health was currently on the opposite side of the room. The man wanted answers and the only person who could give them to him was about five feet away and the only other occupant in the small space.

His throat was sore, as he soon discovered when he tried to speak. "Wh-who-" he grimaced at how weak he sounded.

This action alerted the woman who was caring for him, "Oh!" she gasped in surprise, "You're awake," her tone feigned something akin to confused and utterly baffled. As similar as those two words may be, they were the only two words that could clearly describe her disposition. "Don't try to speak – your larynx and pharynx were crushed and I had to heal them. You know, you're very lucky," she continued, "most people would-"

If Itachi could move at all, he would have shaken his head. Couldn't she tell that he didn't care? He didn't value his life anymore; to him, the only life that had any substance was his dear brother and Itachi didn't know whether or not he was dead or alive or alone somewhere, mourning the loss of his beloved aniki. "Where is he?" he interrupted.

Instead of giving him a straight answer, she whipped him with a towel, reminding him of dinners in a certain village of long ago. "Don't speak!" she chided, "And no one's here. But a man who looked like you asked me to take out his eyes and give them to you-"

No, _no_. "Why?" he rasped, "Why didn't you say no?"

If Itachi could see her, he would have guessed that her face scrunched up in frustration at his rebellion of her request. "I told you to stop talking," she quipped, ignoring him for the time being. "And what was I supposed to do?" she snapped, trying to justify her actions. "He was already dying and asked me to take care of you. He says that he loved you and that it didn't have to be this way. Does that mean something to you? He also gave me a letter to deliver to a Team Seven. I suppose you may know what that means but that doesn't matter right now. For now, just rest."

Who was this woman? She had to be a doctor or medical ninja of some sort. But if she was a ninja, why didn't she know about him or of him? He was pretty sure that he was known well around the shinobi nations, was he not? Even civilians knew about him, so why was she deciding to not mention this fact? Why was she deciding to let him live when all he wanted her to do is finish was Sasuke started.

The Uchiha let go of his questions and let his body go to sleep. Questions could be answered later, but now, as the woman had said, he would rest.

He awoke four days later, with soup near his head and the woman patiently reading a bingo book.

"I know who you are." she told him, realizing that he was now awake. "I let you live because your brother told me the truth. I pretended not to know, at first, so I wouldn't upset you." her gaze flickered to his body, and finally, she whispered those words he didn't want to hear. "I'm sorry for your loss."

Hearing that made everything seem final. There was no turning back now; he had to face the truth. Itachi closed his eyes, refusing to let the liquid pour from his ducts. Sasuke was dead; his foolish little brother was dead. If Sasuke was dead, what purpose did he have? Why even bother living if all he ever lived for was already gone?

Then he remembered the letter. At least he had one last thing to do for his brother before he died. He would deliver the letter and go off somewhere to die.

Her voice cut through his thoughts. "You will leave first thing tomorrow; I can't risk having a missing-nin in my care, no matter what truth your brother has told me, I can't tell others what I know. You should be better by tonight. But it is important that you leave by dawn because my husband will be back by then."

She paused to give him his clothes, "You will have enough food for three days. Take the medical kit with you; I don't want to see you in the morning."

Itachi could only nod in agreement because he was planning to leave tonight, whether she wanted him to or not. He sat himself upright and took the bowl of soup that was beside him. And with the knowledge that his brother was dead, he ate.

* * *

Dawn, Itachi decided, was too fulgent for its own good. For one, his brother's eyes were not used to the sunrise; he must have travelled from dusk to dawn, only fighting at day when he needed to. His brother was avoiding someone and he was very good at it if his eyes had gotten used to the night so easily.

Itachi was soon reminded of the letter in his pocket. As he the trees blurred past him, he was soon reminded of another fact, a fact that he wished not to think about. The trees became clearer as Itachi came to an abrupt stop. He pulled the letter address to Team Seven out of his pouch and tore open the seal. As he pulled the letter from its envelope, another piece of parchment fell from the original paper. Itachi leapt down from the tree to retrieve the paper. His eyes went wide with shock, it was for him.

_Aniki,  
__Live the life you couldn't have.  
__And be happy,  
__Sasuke._

And, for the second time in his life, he let the tears he was holding in fall. How could such a short letter hurt so much? Why? Why Sasuke? Poor, innocent, little Sasuke exposed to the world's harshness, too soon. He was gone; his darling little brother was gone forever. This wasn't supposed to happen. His plan was made for him to die, not Sasuke. Sasuke was only supposed to get his eyes and hate him forever. He wasn't supposed to return his selfless act. Why was he cursed with the weight of reviving the Uchiha clan? Why couldn't Itachi find a better solution? Wasn't there another way?

The truth was those answers were in the gray area. They didn't have clear and concise answers; it varied. Just like love. Itachi's love for Sasuke was something that could not be compared to anything else; it was indescribable, unconditional and immutable love. It was love older brothers had for their younger siblings; it was something unbreakable. Their love was different. As his aniki, Itachi had to sacrifice; it was his duty. And he loved doing it.

All those years, being chased down by hunter-nin, caught in trouble that would just blow his little brother's mind if he even knew a smidge of it and doing unimaginable, horrid things, all for him; it was always _all_ for him. That was Itachi's purpose, to love Sasuke and give him everything he was deprived of when he was a child. Approval. If only he was here now, Itachi could tell him how proud he was of his little brother, how much he desperately wished that it was him instead.

The handkerchief he kept close to his breast was pulled from its spot and brought up to his pale, chapped lips so Itachi could wipe up the blood churning in his stomach. He hunched over again and vomited up his pain. Konoha was close, true, but Itachi could only hope that it was close enough.

His throat became increasingly sore and dry from all the heaving. He found a stream a ways to the left and decided to stop and rest there. Clammy hands were shaking at the effort of bringing water up to his face and it was just another clarification to Itachi that he knew the end was near. When he brought his hands back down, he looked at his reflection. He froze. Itachi didn't think it was possible but apparently, he had aged over the past week or so.

No, that wasn't possible. Was it? It could be a jutsu of some sort. Didn't the fifth Hokage use something akin to an age changing jutsu? The Uchiha shook his head. Perhaps he was stuck in the coma longer than he thought. Thinking back to the conversations he had with his caretaker suddenly made him uneasy. Maybe she was trying to tell him that he was in a coma for a certain amount of year but could never get it out because he kept interrupting her.

On another note, how did she hide him all this time if he _was_ in a coma for years? Surely someone would have discovered his presence eventually. What about her husband? Wouldn't he be curious about the ghoulish figure constantly sleeping on the floor? Or perhaps he always knew not to ask. Perhaps some people knew when business wasn't _their_ business. Or maybe, the faceless man didn't want to know at all.

But musings like those couldn't be continued right now. Itachi had some travelling to do and fast. By now, it was high noon and Konoha was about fourteen to fifteen hours away. Itachi didn't think he would make it this far but he had to, because Sasuke would never forgive him if he didn't do this one last thing for him.

And so, fourteen hours and three-quarters later, Itachi came across the main gate. He abandoned his cloak long ago, as well as the battered forehead protector and the ring his received when he joined the organization. As he treaded into the gate, the guards waiting there immediately leapt up, approaching him slowly as if he would disappear from their sights if they moved too fast. Mouths went agape in shock.

He was _alive_.

The taller guard snapped out of his trance and began fumbling with his communicator. "Uchiha at the main gate, I repeat, Uchiha at the main gate; all operatives stand by."

While the taller was busy running off orders through his mouth piece, the other one was contacting what Itachi could only assume was the Hokage himself. "I have Uchiha at the main gate, no – not that one, the _other_ one." he paused, letting the person on the other line speak, "Yes, I'm _sure_ – he's right here! Yes, yes, as I speak, Hokage-sama." then he turned toward the taller one, "Take Naruto to the safe-place."

The brunette nodded and tossed the shorter man chakra sealers. "Right, I have ANBU squad one, two and five on their way."

The chuunin leapt away to probably retrieve Naruto and hide him in whatever place they decided was safe enough for him. The chuunin inched toward the Uchiha warily, opening his mouth to ask him the standard questions people normally ask their soon-to-be captives. "Do I have your full cooperation during this time?" he drawled lazily, honestly not expecting an answer back.

"Yes." and then he nodded once, for good measure.

Izumo was ready to piss his pants. Uchiha Itachi, _the_ Uchiha Itachi just told him that he would cooperate. It was a trick; it _had_ to be a trick. But nonetheless, Izumo put the bracelets on, wincing slightly when he put them on as if something would come out and attack him from nowhere. Nothing happened. Thus, he straightened up and grabbed Itachi's forearm. "Very well, Hokage-sama wishes to have a word with you."

Itachi opened his mouth to comply that he fully understood but all that came out was a strangled syllable and blood. "I-"

Izumo's eyes widened at the sight. He quickly wrenched his mouth piece from his uniform. "Change of plans, he's sputtering blood from the mouth. No, it's not a genjutsu! He needs medical attention and you _know_ how _a certain someone_ would feel if he didn't get that before the meeting. No, no. No! Stop – stop it, fine!" the chuunin shoved the mouth piece away to disperse the possible genjutsu, "Kai." Once again, nothing happened. "There, I did it. Just – just get the squads to the hospital instead."

From the position where Itachi was, he could hear the sound of the gurgling and crackling of the other person. Izumo deadpanned, looked at Itachi and grumbled to himself. Itachi would have scoffed if his insides didn't feel like eating him from the inside out. So, instead, he opted for ignoring the chuunin, even if he was seven or eight years older than him. This task, however, was going to harder than he thought since the man decided Itachi needed to be informed of things he learned when he was five.

The transmitter gurgled at him. The chuunin maneuvered it over his mouth so he could continue talking when he needed to without releasing Itachi. "No, for the last time, you're not going to get your answers – oh, he did? Wh-why? He said what? You're not serious! No, I do not believe – Hokage-sama, hello. So he really…" Izumo inclined his head toward Itachi before focusing on the road, "Affirmative." and then he let him go. "You're clear to go to the hospital." He released the bracelets he had and waited.

Itachi gave him a pointed look. Izumo didn't catch on. "My… hands…"

"Oh! Well, I'm waiting for-" A lovely squawk and bump on the head cut off Izumo from his ramblings. "-that." he stated flatly, yanking the scroll from the hawk and handing it over to the Uchiha. "Keep this; it'll prevent everyone from attacking you."

The Uchiha only nodded and went in the direction of the hospital. He was there enough in his younger days; he knew how to get there. But there was no point. He had no purpose. He wanted to die. The man would go home and die. But where was home?

Konoha?

"Uchiha-san!" Izumo called out, "The Hokage's assistant will be waiting for you at the hospital." and then, as if to add onto some sick amusement he had, he smirked knowingly at the Sharingan user. "I'm sure she'll be _pleased_ to meet you."

Itachi raised an eyebrow when he wasn't looking. Was that supposed to be a _joke_? Surely people wouldn't be planning his execution already. No one was out at this time of day. Itachi was immediately suspicious and then his eyes narrowed. No, that was ridiculous; they couldn't possibly be planning his assassination already. Then again, they were jumping at the chance to annihilate his little brother at a moment's notice. It was then when Itachi opened his scroll and saw that it was sealed by the Hokage himself.

_As the Rokudaime of Konohagakure,_

_I hereby grant Uchiha Itachi freedom and remove his title as a missing-nin.  
__Due to past occurrences and revealed truths, he is hereby freed from all charges.  
__I grant Uchiha Itachi citizenship of Konoha and shinobi privileges if he sees himself fit.  
__Firstly, he must successfully pass a physical performed by the head medic-nin.  
__No exceptions._

_Sincerely,  
__The Rokudaime of Konoha,  
__Hatake Kakashi_

_Assistant Signature,  
__Haruno Sakura_

_Witness's Signature,  
__Hyuuga Neji_

_Elder Signature,  
__S. Danzo_

The last name burned his eyes. So the man who started it all had decided to grant him freedom? Although Itachi held no ill will toward the man, he knew that he was without a doubt to blame for the death of the entire Uchiha clan. Well, most of the clan. Danzo did not drown Shisui nor did he kill his brother or Madara.

Itachi immediately grew suspicious from the start when he was ordered by Kakashi himself to get an immediate checkup by his assistant. This is why he was suspicious; the way the guard had said it, as if he was convincing himself, as if it was some sick joke really made him uneasy. There was definitely something he wasn't telling him and Itachi had an inkling that it was for Kakashi's (or all of Konoha, for that matter) own sick amusement.

After that, he continued his journey to the hospital; he was nearly throttled by several shinobi and narrowly avoided death by flashing the scroll. Somehow, Itachi knew that a mere scroll would not convince this assistant of Kakashi or the medic-nin of the hospital. In fact, if anything, it would surely hinder him ever getting into the assistant's good graces and right now he needed all the allies he could get. Surely, most of the females of Konoha would forgive him by a simple ghost of a smile but that didn't mean everyone would be as welcoming. As he walked down the all too familiar path toward the hospital, he noticed how multiple shops closed as the shinobi approached, demanding why he had the audacity to be here. Then he'd smugly flash the scrolls signed by the Hokage and be on his way.

When he finally reached the hospital, he shoved his hands into his front pockets and slowly made his way to the empty examination room. Then he waited, and waited, and waited until a low growl of impatience erupted from his throat. It had been nearly three hours since he had gotten here. What on earth was Kakashi's assistant doing that was so important? There had better be a damn good explanation for this one.

Just as his patience reached his breaking point, the examination room door creaked open. Was it the assistant? Please be the assistant, Itachi didn't know how much longer he could take this 'waiting' thing. "- stick it up his ass!" That was… _colorful_. There was a short paused before he heard someone else talk but it was too muffled to actually determine what they were saying. She snorted after hearing the reply. "If he says that, tell him I'll kill him." then the female voice giggled, "I doubt it – hey! Did he tell you to distract me? I have a patient I've been trying to see for the-" she paused, probably to look at her watch or a nearby clock. "- past three hours! Kami-sama! Kakashi is going to _kill_ me!" then finally, his medic was revealed. When the door swung open, Itachi realized that she was looking at his chart which explained the lack of reaction, at _first_. "I'm so sorry for the wait um… I'm sorry, what is your name?" she asked, not even looking up from her clipboard.

"Uchiha." The medic stopped writing momentarily; heck, she almost dropped her clipboard. No, she shook her head, it couldn't be. She heard that voice before, she knew that voice but it simply couldn't be that voice because he was dead.

Apparently she didn't believe him because all she did was gave a short chuckle. "Very funny, but really, I need to know your name so-"

He cleared his throat, "It is Uchiha." he paused, "Uchiha Itachi."

Her eyes visibly widened, even from his position, but she let it slide and refused to look up. It must have been a joke; there was no way that it was him. He was dead, proclaimed dead and even though she never saw his actual body, that didn't mean he wasn't dead. It was then when he studied her appearance. Her medic outfit was a white, short-sleeved, button-up shirt with a matching skirt that met mid-thigh and Itachi decided that to some men it would seem attractive. Although she did have nice legs and he wasn't complaining about how risqué she looked. Next was her little hat tilted to the left side of her head, nicely planted in her ridiculous hair. It was pink. It was shoulder-length and pink. The shinobi would have sneered if he wasn't so polite. Honestly, who had pink hair? And the next thing he wanted to examine was her eyes but unfortunately, she was refusing him that pleasure. She let out an amused harrumph before rolling her eyes. "Alright… _Uchiha_-san, birthday?"

"June ninth," he smirked, assuming that she knew it was _his_ birthday.

Sakura had nearly had it with this smartass. Just who did he think he was? Almost everyone knew of her love for _the_ Uchiha Sasuke but that didn't mean they could rub it in her face and pretend to be his older brother. Sometimes, she wondered if Kakashi was serious about these examination requests or if he was just trying to set her up on another date. "I know you think this is amusing, but I don't find disrespecting the dead very amusing, at _all_. What is your name?"

Itachi sighed; this was going absolutely nowhere, "Look up."

Sakura stomped her foot in an impatient manner. She had it up to here with his antics. "_Fine_. There, I'm looking-" All air stopped in her throat. "- right at you…" No, it couldn't be; it just couldn't be! Yet there he was, supposedly Uchiha Itachi in all his glory, patiently waiting to be examined by his doctor. Too many questions ran through her busy mind. Was she dreaming? Was this some sick joke? Why was he here? What was Kakashi _thinking_? Maybe it's a henge…

'_Ah, they're green. Lovely color_.' And now that he could see her fully, he supposed that she was attractive. To ensure that it wasn't a henge before there was a complete –

"You – you…" she trailed off and then, "_You_!" she hollered with fury in her eyes and kunai already out from the holster strapped to her inner thigh. "Why are you here? Sasuke's dead, there's no reason-"

If the Uchiha was surprised, he didn't show it. That was the whole reason why he came back; he _knew_ his little brother was dead; the other reason why he came was to deliver his letter and _die_. He took this moment to take in her expression. The look on her face would have made him smirk on a normal day. But he was tired and sick and he didn't care. Besides, it wouldn't look much different anyway. "Kakashi said his assistant would be attending to me…" He supplied, as if that held him some rite of passage to not be impaled by all her weapons.

He wanted to play head games, did he? "I _am_ his assistant! Now tell me, who _are_ you?"

He inwardly winced. He knew it, he just knew it. Of all the assistants Kakashi had, he just _**had**_ to give him the uninformed one. Oh, and apparently, she was the head medic-nin, too. So, in light of this new discovery, he decided to go to plan 'b'. "Are you stupid?" He asked abruptly, mirroring Sasuke's monotonous tone. At least she knew where he got it from.

"_What_?" she asked incredulously.

He continued, "Were you dropped on your head?"

"_Excuse me_?" Wait a minute, why wasn't she attacking him? He was a missing-nin, _he_ was the enemy! "How did you get in here? Where did you put the patient's body?" her questions were like spitfire, Itachi barely had time to catch up. Still, that didn't distract him from the fact that she was getting closer and that she was _very_ blessed. It was making him uncomfortable.

This was starting to get old very fast and truthfully, he didn't know how much longer he would last with the hostile kunoichi, checking out his vitals and what not, with him."The scroll." he spoke out clearly because Uchihas do not mutter. "The scroll explains everything."

Sakura twitched, "A _scroll_?" she began, obviously exasperated with the entire situation and she really wanted to know why she wasn't throttling him right now. "A scroll! Are you-"

Before Sakura could continue on her rampage, the door opened and revealed a flushed, young kunoichi, "Sakura-san, Tsunade-sama wanted me to give this to you." What was in her hand? A scroll.

"Give me that!" she snapped, snatching it away and reading it quickly before shoving it into the young medic's hands. "And get out of my sight." she spat, absolutely annoyed by this shenanigan. If Sakura was shocked by the contents, she wasn't showing it.

The blonde-haired girl gulped and wiped away a few tears. Apparently, Sakura was being a tad bit too harsh, even on Itachi's standard, well, harsh enough to make another girl cry. On second thought, that really wasn't much. The young girl wasn't as nearly as attractive as Sakura, he decided, but definitely not ugly. Her brow furrowed in absolute confusion and perhaps repentance. "I apologize for the misunderstanding." The blonde said before bowing slightly and leaving.

Then she went back to her chart, wiping her eyes and furiously writing on the clipboard. Why on earth was she crying? "Alright, well, the first thing I need you-" she stopped mid-sentence at the sight. Sure, she had seen tons of bodies but this _was_ Itachi, no one saw what was underneath that cloak. His shirt was already off and thrown onto the chair, his face was propped up by his hand leaning on his elbow onto his knee and his face portrayed an absolutely bored disposition.

"Age?"

"I don't know."

Her brow creased together in confusion. How did he not know his own age? "Were – were you in a coma, Itachi-san?"

He nodded. "I believe so."

Sakura nodded, "I can determine your age." she paused. "You were always five years older than Sasuke; I am – _was –_ Sasuke's age."

"How old am I?"

The pinkette frowned, "Twenty-six."

"Aa. And you?" Sakura gaped at him. Was he flirting? Then he interrupted her thoughts again with that deep, smooth voice. "Sakura-san, I believe I asked you a question."

To put it simply, Sakura was flustered. She was currently fighting a fierce blush on her cheeks because Uchiha Itachi was_ flirting_ with her and she could _not_ believe it. Sakura had to do something; Ino would kill her if she didn't at least answer his question. Besides, it wasn't everyday Uchiha Itachi was on your examination bed, waiting for a physical. "Twenty-one," she replied. Then she let out a chuckle at the thought of how desperate Itachi must be. There was no way, under normal circumstances, that Uchiha Itachi or any man for that matter, would be flirting with Sakura. "I'm going to give you your psych evaluation too, if that's alright."

"Hn."

Sakura just rolled her eyes at his sudden silence, knowing that she bruised his ego one way or another. "Okay, I need to measure your height and weight so-" she stopped midway to see that he was already standing on the scale, patiently waiting. Sakura decided that she liked him, as a person of course and even if he killed his entire clan, he might not be so bad after all. At least he obeyed his medic-nin and did as he was told. "Okay," she smiled up at him, "You're going to need all your routine shots. Are you allergic to anything?"

"No."

"Very well, have you broken any bones-"

"Yes."

She bristled slightly but said nothing. "Okay." her hand went into one of her pockets, producing a flashlight. "Open up." Sakura wrinkled her nose in disgust. The smell of blood was clear. "Itachi-san, are you dying?"

"I believe I'm very close, Sakura-san."

"I – I, um, how long?"

"Hn."

She stared at him straight on. "_How long_?"

"Too long." he said, looking to the ground.

Her hand was brought to her pretty mouth. "Oh, Uchiha-san." she frowned again, letting tears escape her eyes. "Do you need anything? I – I can get you anything you want. I'll heal you first. Sasuke-kun would have wanted this."

"Haruno-san," he began, grabbing her wrist again, in order to prevent more touching. "I do not wish to be healed."

His quirked eyebrow went unnoticed as she scribbled down various things on his chart. Then she looked up at him, eyes now red and puffy, and muttered under her breath as she left. Now he was curious. Still, that doesn't give him the right to press his ear against the door and eavesdrop on her conversation. "... _Now, now Sakura-chan, there's no need_-"

"_Can it! Are you trying to set up me or something? You know I'm busy and he doesn't even want my help_."

So far, Itachi concluded, that it was the Hokage and his assistant arguing over something. What on earth is she talking about? "_Yes, but this requires the utmost care and you're the only one that can be trusted. Do you just want some newbie performing a task that only you can be trusted with? And you are to heal him, understood_?"

"_Considering that the patient _**was**_ a missing-nin_ – **yes**! _And he won't let me; he's really sick, Kakashi-sensei, really-"_

"_I'll talk to him."_

"_Thank you. But that doesn't dismiss the other matter."_

Itachi inwardly scowled at the girl. "_Sakura, you know, as well as I do, that he had no choice_-"

"_And it was in vain_." she probably scowled at this. "_Do me a favor_," she sighed, "_Just sign the damn paper_."

There was shuffling and scratching heard until Kakashi spoke. "_There, I'll see you tonight_," Itachi heard a faint smack followed by what he assumed to be a very fierce punch. "_Sakura-chan_!" Kakashi chastised, probably for the throbbing in his jaw.

"_You kissed me_!"

"_On the cheek_." the copy-nin pathetically defended, to which Itachi rolled his eyes and continued to listen. "_Besides, you should be flattered; no one gets affection from the Hokage_."

Another thwack could be heard, "_That's because no one __**wants**__ affection from you – you old pervert_!"

"_Old_…?" the Kakashi chuckled, "_That's not what you said last night_-" a low growl interrupted Kakashi's rant. "_Play nice_," he hissed, "_And maybe you'll get a date_."

"_Kakashi_!" While she continued, as Itachi assumed, to berate Kakashi, the copy-nin just kept laughing at his former student. Unfortunately Itachi, for probably the first time in his life, was distracted and that's when the door opened, on his face. A loud grunt erupted from Itachi and Sakura immediately looked over the side of the door to see that she effectively broke Itachi's nose. "Oh Kami-sama! Itachi-san! Are you alright? Here, let me see." she ordered, slapping away his hands from his face. '_I broke his nose! His beautiful nose_!' her inner self wailed inwardly.

"I'm fine," he then snatched both her wrists and pushed them back to her. "I assure you, I'll be fine, Sakura-san."

Sakura inwardly groaned at his stupid male pride. "Uchiha-san, your nose is bleeding." she told him with a smirk.

'_Don't show fear, don't show fear…_' he took a step closer to the medic-nin, "Heal it." he ordered, looking to the right because he was embarrassed to ask for help, from a female nonetheless.

She was done in five minutes, "There, as good as new. Just what were you doing down there, Itachi-san?" she asked, a devilish smirk creeping onto her face.

"Hn."

Sakura just smiled at the nostalgia brought on by that stupid grunt. "I see where Sasuke-kun gets it from." she mentioned with a pleasant smile upon her face. "Well, any last words?" Itachi remained passive which caused Sakura to giggle. He was so much like Sasuke yet at the same time, he was so different. Then she reached from behind her back and presented him a new forehead protector. "You'll get this when you're fully healed. But for now, I need to check your eyes."

"Hn."

She stared. He stared back. She rolled her eyes. He continued to stare. She scoffed and looked at him pointedly. "It helps if you activate it first, Uchiha-san." She said with a giggle. "Please." Pouting before chuckling herself and writing various notes on the chart, she pulled out her pocket flashlight and waited. Soon enough, the commas surrounding his pupil soon became visible and his onyx eyes melted into red. After a few moments of moving her light into the standard cross, she set her instruments down and stepped closer.

Unsure of her intentions, Itachi quickly snatched her wrist, preventing her from coming any closer. "What are you doing, Sakura-san?"

"Checking the chakra flow – oh, you have his eyes."

Ah, he almost forgot. "Sakura-san, can you see that this gets to a _Team Seven_?"

The chakra flow stopped and she retracted away. "Yes," she whispered, "I'm a part of Team Seven."

"You knew Sasuke?"

Sakura stifled a gasp, "Y-yes, he was my teammate. You know that, don't you?"

"Vaguely." he drawled, suddenly more tired than he ever was.

"Thank you, Itachi-san. A nurse will be in shortly to administer your shots and give you your gown. And I'll be sure the rest of Team Seven gets this."

Itachi closed his eyes. Why couldn't fate just let him die?

* * *

_Kakashi,  
__Thank you for all the wise words and teachings.  
__I know that you tried your hardest to teach me.  
__Thank you.  
__- Sasuke._

_Dobe,  
__Yes, you may relish in all your stupid moronic dobe-self that I wrote you a farewell letter.  
__No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't kill you and it really pissed me off.  
__I guess we'll never know who's stronger now.  
__As much as I hate to admit it (and you), you were my best friend.  
__And we had a bond. Are you happy now? I finally admitted it. We have a bond.  
__Don't forget me.  
__- Sasuke._

_Sakura,  
__I don't know where to start.  
__You're so stupid.  
__And pathetic.  
__And annoying.  
__And weak.  
__How could you fall in love with an avenger like me?  
__Why would you let yourself do that?  
__But, I guess, I have to ask myself the same question.  
__Good-bye, Sakura._

_**Take care of my brother.**_

_Move on.  
__Sasuke._

_

* * *

_

Sakura sniffled.

"_Sasuke_."

:TBC:

* * *

Beta readers:  
Paisley May

* * *

A word from the Author: Firstly, I wrote this back in march, almost immediately after I finished my other multi-chapter fiction. This is going to be a multi-chapter fiction and the updates are not going to be as regular as before. I have college now, and the chapters are going to be inbetween 10,000 and 20,000 words. Thanks for reading, I look forward to your feedback.

Questions to Answer:

**Why was Sakura surprised when she saw Itachi?** Because she wasn't looking at the document she was signing. As the Hokage's assistant, she is asked to sign many things for Kakashi and in his own name, so it's highly likely that she could have signed this without reading it.


	2. Basket Case

**Chapter One  
**Basket Case

* * *

When Sakura ran into the flower shop, Ino knew something was up. Ino was notorious for knowing every piece of succulent gossip. In fact, she was so good at knowing things that even she beat the old maids who had nothing better to do. If something happened, Ino knew about it. Also, since she was now pregnant with her first child and officially off mission duty, gossip was basically the only thing Ino could get her hands on. It was general knowledge that Ino knew anything remotely important about the village, the villagers and the shinobi that inhabited it. Before she only caught wind of something; now she not only knew the details of the alleged claim, but she also had the time to confirm it. Being pregnant was probably the best thing that had ever happened to her and the worst thing to happen to her beloved husband.

If Sakura's haggard appearance and distressed disposition didn't give it away, Sakura's natural affinity to stay sterile was. Her beaded, teal top and crisp, white pants were absolutely ruined by the rusty stain of blood. Some of it was new, some of it looked like it was three days old and some of it looked like a killer addition to a Halloween costume. But Sakura was not a zombie, nor did she need to be for her profession thus Ino concluded that the blood and guts display was completely unnecessary for an entrance.

Her hair already did more than enough for that. Using deductive reasoning, Ino hypothesized that Sakura was dressed so appallingly for either attention or to avoid Kakashi. Where ever there were blood and lab coats, Kakashi was not; the hospital was basically the only place to get him off her back. Unbeknownst to her, Kakashi broke his unspoken rule that morning. Yet Ino's awareness of this topic was irrelevant to the current situation. Needless to say, Ino was immediately concerned for Sakura's love life. How was she supposed to snag a decent guy (who didn't mind the Hokage breathing down his neck twenty-four-seven) while looking like a mass-murderer?

Sure, Ino should probably be concerned for the well-being of her village since her best friend was currently covered in blood from head to toe; but with Kakashi as the Hokage and Sakura as his assistant, Ino knew that the safest place to be was exactly where Sakura was. The blond knew that it was a good idea to re-establish her friendship with the pink-haired medic-nin.

It was no secret that Kakashi was protective of his dear student, and it definitely was no secret that he was Hokage, much to Sakura's immense displeasure (which, ironically, _gave_ him pleasure), since he made it a point to make it known otherwise. As annoyed and as desperate as she was, the medic-nin knew that punching the living daylights out of her former teacher would be more detrimental than beneficial (by two pros and five cons). So, Kakashi got away with it, for the most part, at least.

It was mostly because Sakura decided to humor him, and his attempt at making up for ignoring her during her genin years. While Sakura assured him that it was completely _unnecessary_, Kakashi's inner-Alpha male wouldn't allow him to take no for an answer. So, Sakura (reluctantly, begrudgingly and harshly) accepted it, and pretended that it didn't bother her _that_ much.

Analyzing this as a serious situation, Ino decided that it would not be appropriate to call her by the familiar nickname – and her father praised the gods for this small blessing, and he was even going to greet his daughter's friend. That was until Sakura decided it was a great idea to shove every possible costumer out of the store and lock up for the night. Furiously throwing the vase across the room – Inoichi balefully watched the handmade art shatter into a million pieces on the other side of the store – Ino marched right up to her friend, prepared to harp on her for the remainder of the night.

"Oi! Forehead! You're chasing away my money!" Ino griped.

"_My_ money." her father muttered. He pointedly ignored his daughter's glare. "And calm down, Ino, you'll hurt the baby."

Ino would have jumped on her father if he wasn't right.

The pinkette glared at her supposed best friend, "Pig," Sakura began panicking, just how was she supposed to tell her this? She wasn't even sure if she was allowed to tell Ino anything. Perhaps she should put a seal on her mouth so she couldn't say anything. "This is _serious_." She finished calmly in an attempt to pacify the imminent out burst from Ino. Inoichi tensed besides the petunias and orchids (it was Ino's idea, and as stupid as it was, it really did make the atypical flowers sell better) while Ino sneered at her supposed best friend viciously.

Apparently, this only added fuel to the fire. "This better be _serious_, forehead! You just-"

"Uchiha Itachi is back."

Inoichi turned his worrying gaze from Ino to Sakura in a second. Is that why she was so covered in blood? Whether it was hers or someone else's was undetermined. But he did know one thing; nothing was ever going to be the same.

Her words cut through the flower shop like a katana stabbing her next unfortunate victim. Several curses were heard from the back of the store and that is when Sakura realized that she was not alone. How did she not notice him before? He was Ino's father after all, and he owned the store, too. The nin watched Sakura's features contort into surprise and fear. Surprised because she let her guard down did not notice the extra chakra signature in the building, and fearful because Uchiha Itachi was back. Sakura was having a very off day; it probably due to shock and lack of chakra currently in her system.

Inoichi noticed her distress (and that was another thing that showed her exhaustion – showing emotion), but decided not to voice it. Truthfully, Inoichi could not blame her for not being aware of her surroundings; he would have hit the deck if someone informed him of that. Wait –

"_Back_?" he repeated almost soundlessly.

Ino promptly dropped the vase she was holding. "Wha-_what_?" she tried to clarify while the fragments of the previously shattered glass around Ino's standard issue ninja sandals went unnoticed as her mouth went agape in flabbergasted astonishment. The habitual process of juicing any living being of new gossip usually began with asking questions when it came to Ino, but Ino had no inkling as to where to start. This news shook the foundation of everything she believed in and her hypothesis of why Sakura was so distressed. She had been so far off; Ino was floored.

Sakura looked up at her best friend with a grim expression upon her face and nodded. "He's back. And – and there's something else."

Ino immediately perked up at the opportunity to learn something new, especially when it was concerning something that no one else knew. She loved having the power of knowledge and the idea of holding it over someone's head, but right now, Ino wasn't so sure. Yes, she loved information, but a small part of her told her that she wasn't going to like what she was going to hear. "What else?" she whispered. And she was only asking because there was an improbable amount of Uchihas. The improbable number would be one since they all seemed bent on destroying each other one way or another.

Sakura bit her lip to prevent it from trembling further, "I can't tell you." But, oh, how she wanted to tell Ino, to tell anyone that would listen. How was she supposed to hold such information when everyone she knew believed its counterpart-falsehood? Even if she told them, would they actually believe her? Or would they be too brainwashed by the work of Danzo?

Either way, she knew that it was not her place to tell anyone anything.

Somehow, with Sakura drenched in someone else's blood and an absolutely terrified expression on her features (Ino knew that it was just a façade; underneath that she was feeling everything at once), Ino understood that there was more than enough reason to not tell her anything. Quite frankly, Ino really didn't _want_ to know what she could and could not tell her. Ever since she had taken the position of the Hokage's assistant (for the second time, but Tsunade was more lax on certain things and even trusted Ino with certain sensitive information – Kakashi was much more strict, even paranoid), Sakura had been forbidden by Hatake-sama to tell her best friend anything unless he said otherwise.

But this information was not sensitive. The guards at the main gates had practically shouted it to every on-duty jounin and chuunin in the area. At least, Sakura could tell Ino before someone else got her to because_ then_ there would be a problem, a much bigger problem.

The pink-haired kunoichi knew that this would not satiate Ino, but it would have to do because even Sakura did not understand the severity of knowing the truth about the Uchiha Massacre. The mind jutsu user nodded solemnly as her father began to inch closer and closer to the girls. Suddenly, Ino remembered or, rather, noticed something. "Sakura," Ino began worriedly. "Whose blood do you have on your clothes?"

She swallowed, "Uchiha Itachi's."

"Did you kill him?"

Ino turned to her father, "Shut up, dad!" then she turned back to Sakura, "Did you kill him?"

Doe-like eyes widened even more at Ino and Inoichi's insinuations. How much credit did they give her? Yes, her mentor was more than strong enough to defend a whole hidden village, but even she could not defeat Uchiha Itachi without help. Surely they knew that _she_ could never be strong enough to even lay a finger on Uchiha Itachi. "I don't know what rumors you two have heard of me, but I'm afraid they must be terribly false for you two to believe that I could even harm him. Pardon me for saying so, Inoichi-san, but you_ really_ shouldn't listen to what your daughter says."

The expecting mother knew that Sakura had severe issues with her self-esteem, so much that Sakura threatened to slaughter Ino if she brought up her lack of chest one more time. Truthfully, Ino was going to ignore her request and continue annoying her, but something in Sakura's eyes told Ino that she was done with the games. That she was done with fighting, and done with all the taunts at her figure. Regardless, her features had nothing to do with her skills as a kunoichi. Even before she had learned to properly control her chakra, Sakura was still able to draw a tie during the chuunin exams.

"_Then why is his blood on you_?" Ino inquired shakily, clutching her swelling belly. "And like hell, you couldn't, forehead. I wouldn't be surprised if you did manage to kill him for all the things he did to you and your team personally."

"Ino." Sakura warned. "Can we not talking about this now?" Pregnant or not, Sakura's patience with Ino was three seconds away from inducing labor so she could get that baby out and kick Ino's ass.

The blond flicked her hair over her shoulder as her eyes narrowed even further in scrutiny. "So why didn't you kill him?" she put a hand up to silence Sakura's attempt at displaying her lack of confidence and low self-esteem first hand. "Don't say you can't, forehead, you know you can at least land a good hit or two on him."

After a few moments of pensive silence, Sakura finally broke the silence.

Sakura bit her lower lip, "He's my patient," she informed them quietly.

Inoichi unconsciously scooted closer to his pregnant daughter. For some reason, the fact that Uchiha Itachi was being treated and not immediately executed unnerved him. The elders were up to something, or better yet, Kakashi was up to something. With his notorious record, Inoichi knew it couldn't be good. "Patient?" he repeated almost silently.

The blond female snapped. "You're _treating_ him?" If Ino had a pencil or something of equal or lesser value, she would have snapped it in half, found something else of the same shape and snapped it again.

"For the love of God, Ino, think of the baby!" he shouted. Inoichi went on ignored until he voiced his thoughts. "Should I be here with you or with your teacher, Sakura?"

"No, you can stay; because where ever I am, so is Kakashi-sama." She noted bitterly.

The older male's brow furrowed. "That's not exactly safe." He murmured.

Sakura blinked. "Kakashi-sensei likes to skip out on work, and with the news of Uchiha Itachi in the hospital and not in prison, he's a little on edge." Ino looked surprised by the statement while Inoichi hid his astonishment. If the copy-ninja was known for one thing, it was his cool indifference in a crisis. He was not known for being worried about a fugitive securely captured and detained and his student's welfare, so much that he nearly dismissed his duties as Hokage, twice.

"Kakashi-sama is… worried?"

The medic-nin nodded. "Yes, but I didn't come here to tell you that. I came here to warn you. Uchiha Itachi is going to be set free. And I'm going to heal him." Sakura paused when she realized that she was going to reveal something that she was not supposed to. The pinkette furrowed her brow. Then why had she come to Ino in the first place? If she was not allowed to utter a word of what she knew, the reason of her visit was moot.

The blond was furious. "You're going to _wha_-"

She had to go. She had to leave before she blurted out the village's secret. "I'm sorry, Ino, but I have to go. Everything will make sense soon, I promise." In a flurry of blood-soaked clothing and pink hair, Sakura left the flower shop without another word and without warning.

"Sakura – wait!" Ino called, running out to the front of the store. "Why are you so upset about this?"

The pinkette ceased her stalking and pivoted on her heel toward Ino. "Because! He's the last Uchiha. He's the last piece of Sasuke we have and I'm sorry if you'd rather see him die, but I can't let him."

"Do you think Sasuke would have wanted this? The_ murderer_ of his clan to-"

"Don't call him that!" she snapped, "You don't – I can't – Ino, you don't understand!"

The blond was relentless when it came to these kinds of things. A hand was brought to her stomach; Ino realized that it was her father telling her to calm down, but she waved him off. She always pestered and prodded until she got exactly what she was looking for. Sakura knew this, and that was taken into consideration when she stormed away. That was why stormed away. As much as she hated to admit it, Ino could not keep a secret if her life depended on it. And Sakura could not risk something as sensitive as this reach the public's ears. At least not yet, when he was not ready; when she was not ready.

The kunoichi folded her arms across her chest and sneered at her best friend once again. "You're right, I don't understand. And I won't, because that man is a fugitive; he caused your team so much pain and you just want to set him free? I don't get it. What's in it for you?"

The pinkette scowled at the mind-jutsu user. The Haruno knew that Ino would not get it; she knew that Ino's acceptance to the entire situation would be less than likely. The fierce determination in her eyes died away when she was reminded exactly why she was arguing in the first place. "He wants to die, Ino."

It was barely a whisper, but Ino had heard the statement as if it was loud and clear. "Then let him! I mean, it's not like it's going to be hard. You just take a needle and-"

"I'm done with this conversation." Then Sakura threw her arms up in frustration and walked away.

"You can't just walk away from me!" she shouted, attracting the attention of many innocent bystanders.

"Yeah," Sakura retorted lamely, "I am! Just watch me!"

* * *

After her previous conversation with Ino, Sakura was not in the mood to hold any time of conversation with anyone. Especially if that person happened to be Naruto, and if he was demanding ramen. Alas, but there she was, sitting next to her longtime teammate, eating something that she could go fourteen lifetimes without. Truthfully, she could be doing more important things than eating soup with Naruto, but he had insisted upon it; and Sakura did not have the heart to fight him.

Naruto knew that Sakura was a busy woman, particularly after Uchiha Itachi had returned to Konoha to die, or so he heard. The man had arrived nearly twelve hours ago and he was already stealing away _his_ woman (although, Sakura would protest to this because technically, Hinata was his woman, and Sakura was his teammate) and her time. However, Ino never was good at getting her facts straight, and to tell the truth, Naruto never really trusted her word anyway; so, for all he knew, Uchiha Itachi could be in Rain Country, six feet under and currently being consumed by maggots and larva alike.

He continued to believe that everything he was hearing was all rumors. _Uchiha Itachi has arrived and he demands the body of his brother. Uchiha Itachi has arrived and he demands that someone provide him a wife. Uchiha Itachi has arrived and he wants Naruto._ The latter was the most unsettling of them all to the Kyuubi container, the second one being the least unsettling because there was no way that was true.

Either way, Naruto was certainly less than appreciative that the elders had not decided whether or not to execute Uchiha Itachi; that is, if he was actually here and alive. Both of which were highly unlikely, but that really did not concern Naruto as much as Sakura's wary disposition. He knew something was wrong the minute she accepted his invitation to lunch without so much of a fight. She just sighed, fought with him for a moment half-heartedly, and agreed.

Could it be possible that she, too, had heard the news?

The Uzumaki had been watching her for a while now. The kunoichi was just stirring her meal around and staring off into space. Something unnerved her, and while Naruto had a very vague idea of what that might be, he chose not to risk asking her. Kami forbid if he was wrong; he would receive one hell of a beating.

If Sasuke was here, he would probably call him chicken or an idiot, or both. He could not just sit there and do nothing, could he? If it were anyone else, Sakura would have just walked away; he supposed that there was a reason why she was still there.

Well, sitting there was not going to get him anywhere. "Sakura-chan?" Even though she was almost twenty-one, Naruto still called her by the name he used in their academy days. After receiving neither a yea nor nay, Naruto continued, "Is something bothering you?"

Her spoon clattered against her bowl before slowly sinking under the broth. Pink tresses turned toward him with those big, viridian eyes. "Naruto…" she began softly, "Yes, there is something bothering me, but I don't know how to explain it to you without sounding crazy." But she was dying to tell him; _oh,_ how she wanted to blurt out everything she was feeling to him.

"I'll never think you're crazy."

If Sakura was drinking some tea, she would have probably snorted into it or choked on it through her laughter. "You say that like you mean it."

"But I do mean it, Sakura-chan!" he replied with an earnest face.

"Naruto," she stopped herself short, figuring out the proper way to word her next statement. "What if I told you that Uchiha Itachi wanted to die?" Then Sakura was suddenly aware of the eavesdroppers around the pair when the villagers and shinobi alike stopped talking and chopsticks clattered onto their plates.

It was a controversial question with a controversial answer, and Sakura knew that easiest did not come hand in hand with the solution.

The future Hokage looked at his friend with his brows creasing. So everything he heard was true because there was no way Sakura would bring that up just for kicks. She always had purpose behind everything she said, and this was no exception. Thus, he knew that just asking this question was not a coincidence, and that all the rumors he heard were true. Frankly, Naruto did not exactly know how he felt about that. Another person might wish death upon the Uchiha, but Naruto was not just another person.

"Does he?"

Sakura even had the audacity to not spare him a glance. "Yes."

"Then why are you asking me?"

"Who did Sasuke love the most?"

Naruto offered her a small smile, and the villagers who happened to eavesdrop on the conversation scoffed at his weakness for Sasuke. "His brother, his family, his_ clan_, that's all he talked about. I can't understand why this is relevant, Sakura-chan." Sakura remained silent. "Is it relevant?"

"What if-" the amount of observers made her stop their conversation momentarily to pull him into the Hokage Tower, which happened to be very far away, and caused Naruto ask multiple questions that Sakura did not have the authorization to answer.

* * *

When they finally reached the Hokage's office, Sakura slammed the door open, threw Naruto inside and held no regard for the people currently discussing village matters with Kakashi. "Ah, Sakura-chan-"

"Tell him. Now."

The elders immediately stood up to protest, ready to silence whoever stood in their way. "Kakashi, this is not authorized-"

"Oh, and what you did was?" Sakura interjected snidely.

Naruto's eyebrows creased downward, "What did he do?" he asked, and then he turned toward the elders, as if they would tell him.

Sakura sneered at the council, "Yes," she growled, "what _did_ you do?"

Danzo stood up; cane shaking angrily as he took unbalanced steps toward the medic-nin. Kakashi stood up from his position, obviously feeling threatened by Danzo's menacing glare and the elder's reluctance to tell Naruto, the future Hokage, anything. "Haruno, hold your tongue." He ordered.

"Hey!" Naruto yelled, "Don't tell her what to do!"

"Naruto," one of the elders admonished, "It is not your place to tell Danzo-sama what to do."

The pink-haired kunoichi sneered at her superior. "Actually, I think you'd prefer to seal it." She bit out, but immediately regretting her dangerous choice of words. Sakura wasn't supposed to know that piece of vital information, but seeing the look on Danzo's face almost made it worth it.

The man's eyes went wide, and Kakashi inwardly mused that his expression meant that maybe it was time to retire. How did she know that? "Who told you that?" he demanded. "Was it him?" he asked, cane pointing in Kakashi's general direction.

This was bad. This was worse than bad. Kakashi knew that Sakura was just goading him into saying something that would forever incriminate him. As much as Kakashi would have enjoyed that, he knew that it would only cause more damage than good.

Besides, Danzo knew better than that to reveal such sensitive information, no matter how horrible the contents were. Revealing this information would be irresponsible and would probably cost many people their jobs. Danzo deserved to be seen as the ruthless leader that he is, but that didn't mean he would be humble and not drag everyone else down with him.

Despite his constant pestering of her person, Sakura remained silent. This, unfortunately, only proved to anger the old man further and caused him to approach her with his cane stabbing menacingly into the floorboards. "You little bitch!" he shouted as his cane wobbled, "answer me!" he yelled.

Naruto opened his mouth to say something, but he saw the elder's warning glance and decided against it. He clenched his fists at his sides and glared at his superior hotly.

"I'm not telling you anything." She snipped defiantly.

"Why you-" and that was when Danzo took a swing at Sakura. Her eyes went wide in shock belatedly and she realized that it was too late to dodge his swift cane. In two seconds flat, Sakura was knocked to the floor, and Kakashi was throttling Danzo.

"Sakura!"

"Kakashi!" one of the elders barked, "Stand down!"

Naruto turned toward the elders, "Don't tell him that!" he ordered as he pointed to Danzo and Kakashi's wrestling forms, "He hit Sakura!"

"Kakashi!" The female elder shouted, "Get off of him!"

He ignored them, "You listen to me, Danzo; you can hurt this village, you can touch Naruto and you can even threaten Sasuke's life, but you _do not_ touch her. **Ever**." As soon as he released him, the old man scrambled to his feet and hastily wobbled out of the room. Kakashi was at Sakura's side immediately. "Why didn't you dodge him?"

"We need something more than documents to prove that he's wrong for Konoha, don't we?"

Much to the other elders' disgust, Kakashi leant down and pressed a tentative kiss to Sakura's forehead (because taking one for the team deserved some kind of compensation), which caused Naruto to blanched and obnoxiously shout, 'Kakashi-sensei!' before being promptly ignored. "You always were my favorite student."

Sakura closed her eyes and hummed in agreement as Kakashi gently examined her forming bruise.

She smiled up at him before whispering, "Liar."

* * *

Sakura's complexion, as Sai had noticed, was almost always completely flawless and pale. Never once was her face excessively red or ridiculously bumpy with pus-filled infections of the pores (he had also been secretly stealing her medical text books in hopes of reaching a humanistic understanding of life. Instead, he was given what his personality was: blunt and to the point); her face was always clear and free from blemishes.

When he asked her of this, she simply told them that she secretly abused her medical ninjutsu.

So that was the end of that mystery. Sakura's face would always be clear so long as she had knowledge of her medical jutsu. Imagine his surprise when he saw Sakura's normally faultless face smudged with a bluish-purple tint of a newly forming bruise.

Sai was displeased with seeing this. He can only imagine how irate Naruto would be when he found out. "Ugly." He stated, "You have a bruise on your face."

Sakura's viridian eyes flickered toward her longtime teammate and gave him a deadpanned look. "I know that," she snapped, picking up a chart from the nurses' station, and began to walk away from him. His pink-haired teammate straightened, as if she suddenly remembered something, and spun around to eye Sai suspiciously. "Why are you here anyway? Did Danzo send you to spy on me?" Seeing as they were in the hospital, and most ninjas refused to go even remotely close to one, it was a very valid question to ask.

"On the contrary, I have been ordered to receive a check-up."

"Did Kakashi send you?"

Instead of answering her, he just ignored her in his own condescending way. "Oh, I see. You're ignoring me; should I ignore you, too?"

"Sai," she began in a warning tone.

"That bruise is unpleasant; it makes your already ugly face even uglier."

The clipboard she was currently holding split in two. With one half, she discarded it by violently heaving it at a nearby and unsuspecting nurse; the other half was promptly pegged at Sai's head. He dodged it, which only proved to anger Sakura more, and then he smirked at her smugly. Her pen was the next thing to go.

His brow creased in contemplation, something that she was sure that he copied from Naruto, especially after seeing it so many times. "You are angry."

"Really," she drawled flatly.

The former ROOT member smiled, "Quite."

Sakura thought about rolling her eyes, but went against it since Sai would probably think she was going to faint or something. She sneered at him; he continued to smile. Her eyebrow twitched in irritation. "So, why are you here?" she asked, her patience running thin.

Like before, he ignored her, and continued to remind her of her recent injury. "It is also swollen a bit; you should probably get that checked out, Ugly."

Sakura's brow twitched in irritation, and the only reason why Sai wasn't currently imbedded into the wall was the fact that they were in the ICU; and the patients needed rest, not the stress of waking up to someone's body being crushed into a slab of concrete wall. The medic-nin had a few possibilities in mind, but they were mostly void due to the fact that it was Sai, and complexity of this kind was probably beyond him. Not that she considered him stupid; she just thought him to be… in need of looking after. As he continued to smile contently at her the medic-nin's shred of patience was began to tear, "Sai-"

"I almost feel sorry for the person who inflicted that upon you."

With a comment like that looming over her, Sakura was immediately suspicious of Sai's intentional visit. Sakura tilted her head to look at Sai fully and to give him a stern look. "What are you trying to say?" she asked, although she had a few theories, none of which seemed pleasing to either party. Sakura was slightly threatened by his closeness, so she put a few more inches between them.

Suddenly, his arms were around her and Sakura had all but two seconds to comprehend – or struggle against his hold – what was happening before he pulled away from their brief hug. "I just want to let you know that…" he trailed off into a whisper, "…_I'm on your side_."

Her eyes widened – this definitely wasn't Sai, and if was, Sakura could only assume that he had been brainwashed. So, Sakura did the only thing she could do. Sakura grabbed his wrist and twisted it behind his back, and shoved him into the supply closet with her. Sure, she received looks from the few staff that was around, but it was necessary for whatever conversation that they were going to have to be a secret. "And what is _that_ supposed to mean?" she hiss as she pulled on his arm harder, ready to snap his ulna and radius if his answer was wrong. "Who are you?"

"I am Sai."

The roseate pulled harder, earning a small grunt from the male, "If this is a trick from Danzo, you can tell your leader to shove it up his ass!"

"It's not." He replied. "Isn't that what you do? Whisper when you are trying to keep a secret?"

His teammate snorted indignantly before letting him go. "Only Sai would say something that naïve. Next time, make sure we're in _private_."

"Will do." He murmured quietly, "but I must go. Keep your head down."

Sakura's eyes widened. So the council _was_ targeting her, and Sai was risking everything just by telling her. Were they trying to hurt Kakashi-sensei and Naruto as well? The young woman had always been suspicious of his loyalty, but she supposed that it now lay with the Hokage, and not Danzo or the elders. Sai took a piece of paper from a shelf and a pen from her lab coat, and scribbled down a message before leaving in a puff of smoke. The pink-haired kunoichi bristled at his abrupt departure.

"Wait! Sai – you have a –ugh!" He was already gone, with the little piece of paper and his penmanship on it in his place.

_I know that you are planning something._

Before Sakura had a chance to process this, a nurse burst through the door and tugged her into the hallway. "Haruno-sama! Uchiha-san is coding!"

Sakura crumpled the little piece of paper and rushed out the door, making a mental note to burn it later.

* * *

_Coding_? He couldn't possibly be coding! She gave him his regulatory drugs three hours ago. Sakura did the math; he should be fine for at least three more hours until his assigned nurse did her mandatory rounds and re-administered his drugs. This meant that he's not dying of congestive heart failure, and that Sakura was back at square one.

Nonetheless, Sakura didn't have time to ponder on how very wrong she was on her diagnoses. Right now, she needed to focus on keeping Itachi stable long enough for her to fix him. His 'wishes' be damned; she was not going to just let him die. Sakura was sure that if Sasuke was here now, he would be fighting alongside her.

Oh, _Sasuke_.

The pinkette bit her lip and ignored the lump in her throat. It got larger when she looked into Itachi's bleary eyes and only saw Sasuke's blank ones. Yet it was also a reminder of why she was pushing so hard. He would stay alive. He will live.

Yes, he will survive for Sasuke, if not anything else.

A nurse handed her the paddles, "Clear!" she shouted, pressed and electrified. Nothing. "Clear!" she shouted again. Nothing. "Damnit, this is too soon! Someone get Tsunade-sama! Clear!" his body lifted up off the bed in response. A mockery of actually being alive; mocking her. No –_ no_, he was not going to die. Not this time. "_Clear_!"

The monitor beeped twice in response before beeping a few more times in recession until it finally, finally gave her a steady pulse.

"Thank Kami." She whispered. "Keep him steady. Switch him to this." Sakura said hastily, shoving a prescription that was in her pocket into the nurse's hand.

The pinkette gave Itachi one last glance. His eyes were glazed over, his long hair was a mess, and his knuckles were white from gripping the sheets so hard. The medic-nin knew that Itachi would not be pleased with her persistence of making him live, but she was told to keep him stable; and that's what she'll do, until someone (besides Itachi) tells her otherwise.

Sakura left the room, her lab coat billowing in her wake. Her hands began to wipe at her eyes profusely, but it was no use since everyone's pitying gaze gave away that they had already seen her. The medic-nin did not stop moving until she reached the sanctuary that she called her office.

The Uchiha were a strange sort. They betrayed each other, yet they would also die for each other. Hell, Itachi had killed for his little brother. Itachi had done everything for his brother. Every breath that was taken in by him since Sasuke's birth was to simply stay alive so he could watch over him. Why couldn't Sasuke see that sooner? Why couldn't he see that Itachi was doing all of this for him? Everything, all the pain, all the strife, all the years spent in that organization – all for his little brother.

Itachi was noble. He wanted to die with honor, dignity or something that Sakura didn't care about. Keeping him alive would keep Sasuke's memory alive. Besides, she couldn't very well let the Uchiha clan die along with him, could she? It was her duty as a kunoichi and medic-nin to keep his alive so he could produce heirs. As vulgar and savage as that sounded to Sakura, she knew that the elders would be approaching him soon with their plea to produce heirs.

No doubt they would lie through their teeth about not being involved with the clan massacre, and he would pretend to believe them, like a good shinobi.

When she reached her office, Kakashi was already inside, waiting for her. "Sensei." She managed to breathe out before wiping her eyes and slumping into the only chair. Today was not her day. Actually, as of lately, most days were turning out to not be her day. Sakura fought the sudden urge to break into her sake stash in the second drawer of her desk; she didn't want Kakashi-sensei to see her like this. Speaking of Kakashi, the man just continued to stare at her with hi analyzing stare. His student stared back.

Kakashi remained stoic as his gaze traveled to her face, her hunched posture and overall bodily structure that Sakura liked to call her physique. To say that she was getting impatient with him was an understatement. Sakura was tired, very tired, and if he wasn't going to do anything, then she was going to kick him out and go home. "Don't you have duties to attend to?" she finally snapped.

"I do." He mused.

He continued to ignore her blatant stare ordering him to _'get the fuck out'_, and to take his ANBU guards with him. Whenever she was with Kakashi, she always felt like she was being watched (which was undoubtedly true) and right now, Sakura just wanted to be alone. "Can't you just leave me alone?" she half-begged, half demanded.

"No." he answered simply, earning an annoyed glance from Sakura, "Not when you're like this."

"Sensei, I'm fine." His student insisted as she opened a file-drawer and searched around for something. "You don't have to be ridiculously protective, and ignore your duties just to make sure I'm okay." She continued teasingly.

Kakashi's deadpanned expression gave her nothing but what it was: a deadpanned expression. "Don't flatter yourself." He retorted, "You know why I'm here." Kakashi replied, head tilting to the side as a silent question.

Sakura knew better than to answer if they weren't alone. Despite the fact that she hadn't sense any extra chakra signatures, Sakura knew better than to just assume that no one else was listening in on their conversation. Whether it was Kakashi's faithful ANBU guards or Danzo's ROOT agents, Sakura didn't trust anyone unless she knew them since she was twelve; and _that_ was a very exclusive and closed group. Even then, some of the people she knew when she was younger couldn't be trusted.

"We're alone, Sakura."

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe you."

Kakashi sighed to himself. "When did you get so cynical?"

Sakura continued to search for the file. She knew it was in here somewhere. Unless, her assistant had taken it by mistake, but that was highly unlikely; Aya was a medical ninja as well, so the possibility that she took the wrong file seemed very unlikely. Now while Sakura didn't particularly trust Aya, Sakura knew that the girl incapable of committing any sort of treason against Sakura.

"I learn it from you," she attempted to pin him down with a glare, but failed because that mask gave him an infinite façade of aloofness.

The Copy Nin resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Ah, so you have, Sakura-chan." He cleared his throat. "But let's get on task, shall we?" he heard Sakura sighed to herself as she began to riffle through the pile of papers on her desk, "Firstly, what you did was dangerous and stupid, and you shouldn't have blindly thrown yourself at his cane like that. What if he-"

"Kakashi," Sakura cut him off, "I _know_. But this-" she pointed to her bruise, "-is the key to our success."

The Hatake frowned beneath his mask. "Still. It was reckless, and you know better."

He was patronizing her. "Kakashi-sensei," Sakura sighed, "You worry too much."

Kakashi's frown deepened, but he didn't say anything or instigate Sakura further. He knew that she would do it again if it meant knowing the truth. Despite his protests and his better judgment, Kakashi, too, desperately hoped that Sakura would do it again if it meant that the elders would go down with her.

Sakura wasn't that much of a martyr, but Kakashi sure as hell was.

"I probably do," said Kakashi. "But – _what_ are you looking for?"

The kunoichi stopped shuffling around her vast amount of paper piles to give him an annoyed look. "Uchiha Itachi's old file, I requested it before I left the hospital this morning. Yamato-taichou said that he would have it on my desk by early afternoon, and it's not here!"

"How did you-"

"I forged your signature."

He should probably be angry at her for doing that, but she probably also knew that he wouldn't really care since she forged half of Konoha's documents. Besides, there were more important things at hand, such as finding Itachi's file. Even Sakura, who had been clued in with Itachi's condition, did not have enough clearance to move or view ANBU files. Kakashi decided to aid Sakura in her pursuit, because something more than the elder's usual tactics was up.

* * *

The door slammed, which caused the dimly lit corridor to flicker from gray-brown to pitch black to gray-brown again. The hallway's new occupant ignored the screams coming from each door and pushed forward towards his destination. His foot falls echoed in the concrete tunnel as he continued down the hallway.

Despite a door not slamming abruptly, the lights overhead continued to flicker every few minutes.

One of the doors was wretched open by gloved hands – standard issue for ROOT members – so the visitor couldn't identify their hands. It seems that Danzo was getting more and more paranoid. So paranoid, in fact, that he was forcing his minions to wear gloves so they could not be identified by their _**hands**_.

Who knew that hands could be so distinctive?

The ANBU pretended not to be shocked and simultaneously horrified at the sight; they knew the prisoner. In those gloved hands held a thoroughly beaten Umino Iruka, who looked like he had seen better days. Their eyes met, and the familiar feeling of guilt – or at least that's what Sakura called it – curled in his gut. The man made no sound as he was dragged into another room. As soon as the door closed, his blood curdling scream was heard.

Sai tried not to wince - he even fought the urge to rush in there and save him. His shoulders tensed slightly when Iruka let a particularly loud scream. Sai knew that man; he personally _knew_ that man (Iruka was kind enough to answer his questions about people from time to time when Sakura had punched him across Konoha), and as far as he could remember, he was also a loyal shinobi who didn't deserve this kind of torture. Iruka didn't deserve any kind of torture, yet Sai was at a loss as to what to do.

Perhaps he wasn't as loyal as he thought. Or maybe, just maybe, he was too loyal to someone.

Nevertheless, Sai moved on. At the end of hall, there was a door different from all the others. It was immaculate-looking compared to the rusted metal doors that held the torture chambers and prisoners. The ex-ANBU knew this door all too well.

He knocked twice, tapped three times and lightly kicked the door with his foot.

And there was the monster himself, the self-proclaimed king, the emperor with no kingdom or city to rule. It was Danzo, and he was sporting a rather lovely mess of clotted blood in the shape of a certain Hokage's hands around his neck and left clavicle.

Sai stepped inside.

"Do they know?" he croaked out from his throne.

Sai shifted his gaze away from Danzo's eye, "No."

He smiled maliciously. "Good."

Black eyes eyed the documents on his desk. "Is there anything else, Danzo-sama?"

"Yes," he grumbled, "See to it that _Haruno-san_ gets her file?"

The young man swallowed hesitantly, but didn't voice an answer. Without another word, Sai took the file and left the room.

* * *

Sakura clutched the file in her hand so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. Danzo had heard that she wanted the file, changed the contents and then decided to give it to her. As if she wouldn't notice the difference! That man was mocking her!

And he had ordered Sai to give it to her! Sai, of all people, was the one to hand it to her with a reproachful look in his eye. The dark-haired man rarely ever showed emotion; so when Sakura saw the look in his eyes, she immediately knew that something was up. Something, as it turns out, was indeed up; and Sakura was _pissed_.

Her hands violently shifted, causing some of the papers (mostly blotted with black ink) to fall onto the floor.

Her jaw clenched in anger and grounded her teeth together.

But before she began to destroy the lie Danzo called the truth, Sakura managed to get out one word: "_Bastard_."

* * *

:TBC:

* * *

A/N: I am so sorry for the long wait. There really is no excuse for making you wait this long.

Also, all the questions you have will be answered, asking me questions about the plot is just going to ruin the fic for you. So unless it's something that I didn't clarify in THIS chapter or the previous one, do not ask it. I'm only doing this for you; because quite frankly, if I ruin the fic for you, I don't care. But you _will_ care. And a part of me would rather not reveal any of the plot; I like things to be somewhat of a surprise.

Questions That You Might Have:  
What did Iruka do? Not telling.  
What will happen to Iruka and will we see him again? Also not telling.  
What disease does Itachi have? This will ruin the plot.  
Why did Kakashi kiss Sakura on the forehead and then yell at her? Because he was making a show of what she had done to piss off the elders.  
Who is Ino's husband? You'll see.

See? I could only answer ONE of those questions because if I DID answer them, it would ruin the fic for you.

If it has something to do with the fic in general, feel free to ask.

Thanks

-moldy.

REMEMBER: Reviews are love. :)


	3. Twice Now

**Chapter Two  
**Twice Now

* * *

Brightness.

Blurriness met his vision as the brightness of the standard hospital lights flickered lightly above his head. His mind went into momentary overdrive before realizing where he was and how he got there. Itachi was home. Itachi was in Konoha – the place of his birth, and most likely the place of his death. Those who knew the truth would no doubt assume that Itachi would welcome death with open arms. Yet when it came to Sasuke's old female teammate, Haruno Sakura, she seemed hell bent against the idea.

Clearly, this woman thought that she could save him from whatever disease fate had decided to give him.

Perhaps that wasn't fate's true intention. Maybe fate thought that death was too sweet of a punishment for the Uchiha; perhaps fate had other things in mind for his demise.

He felt his lips moving, air passing through the slightly chapped lips and making sounds, but they were muttered and garbled into a blob that his brain could not separate. Desperately, he tried again; someone was there. Someone was sitting in the chair next to his bed. That someone happened to be a male. He was tall and young.

As the center of his vision came into focus, Itachi began to notice the little details of the figure residing in the chair next to his bedside. He had dark hair, like him, and a face almost akin to his own. It was Sasuke. Of course, Itachi knew that this must be some sort of vision or cruel genjutsu because Sasuke was dead. Itachi had the eyes to prove it.

His younger brother stared at him with curious eyes, as if he was asking him why he was currently in a hospital bed, rather than six feet under in a wooden casket. Sasuke tilted his head to the side and leaned forward. "Aniki." He stated simply and said nothing else to quell Itachi's burning curiosity about this vision. Suddenly Itachi was brought back to the past, years before Sasuke's innocence was ruined – years before everything was destroyed.

Sasuke was playing in a field while Itachi leisurely threw kunai at nearby trees surrounding the clearing. He paid more attention to his little brother than the tree he was wounding, however, because Sasuke was known to skin his knees and trip over conveniently placed rocks. Surely, his mother would be disappointed to find out that he couldn't protect his little brother against a few rocks and pebbles.

As he was striking the tree, Sasuke rustled around in the tall weeds and bushes, frolicking around in the sunlight. Dandelion seeds flew up into the air as Sasuke mercilessly plucked every one of them and attempted to make a million wishes. If Itachi knew then what he knew now, he would wish that no one would try to overthrow another.

With a shout, Sasuke proclaimed that he found something and hastily waddled over to his aniki to display his prize to him. It was a bird, and it appeared that one of its wings was broken due to Sasuke's rough handling of the petite little creature. It attempted to flap around in Sasuke's hand pathetically. Just as Sasuke was about to throw it to the ground and promptly stomp on it, proclaiming that it no longer had a use now that it was broken, Itachi ceased his movements and cradled the creature in his hand.

"_All things are precious, Sasuke_,"

Itachi was brought back to the room he was currently forced to stay in until he eventually died. The memory brought upon him was unfamiliar, but it was sure that he had to experience it in order for him to remember things so vividly. Knowing himself as a child, he would have most likely brought it to the Inuzuka clan.

Now, as he turned his head toward the figure, he was equally curious. The figure beside his bed was most definitely Sasuke. But why? Why did his mind insist on taunting him with the one thing in his life that mattered? Why did fate have to be so cruel to give him another memory of his fallen brother? Wasn't living with his crimes enough?

The telltale feeling of the prickle of fresh tears began to emerge behind his eyes. On his right, the steady beeps that reminded him that he was alive began to skip their usual rhythm and radically bounce all over the place. His vision of Sasuke was abruptly replaced with the ceiling as the world around him began shaking.

What once was clear was now blurry again. Even now, the edges of his vision were black and the center blotting out into darkness. Numbness met the pain of the convulsing his body was unwillingly going through as the sound of rushing and voices filled his ears.

A low, steady beep met his ears before his world went black.

"-cart here! Uchiha-san is coding!" A nurse called out to a nearby orderly.

"Hurry up, we need 400ccs of-"

"-one contact Haruno-sama, she'll want-"

"-charging, and… clear!" It was silent for a moment as their patient's torso lifted toward the paddles before being abruptly brought down. The monitor flat lined. The doctor on duty's mouth formed a thin line. Haruno-san would kill him if he let him die. Besides, it went against the Hippocratic Oath. "Recharging!" he announced.

Some of the nurses looked puzzled, while the one who happened to be operating the machine seemed impassive to the entire situation and began recharging.

"Clear!"

* * *

"-you have any ramen? All I see is this green stuff and carrots." When Naruto finally shut the door, Sakura was right there waiting for him, arms crossed and disposition firmly set in an accusing façade. The blond stopped eating the tomato he found (a quirk that he encouraged ever since Sasuke died – Sakura did not have the heart to tell him that there are better ways to keep Sasuke's memory alive) and straightened his posture until it was in an upright position.

She offered him a flat look. "They're called vegetables, and they're good for you."

Naruto made a face at his companion. "So?" he began, the juice of the tomato flowing in between his fingers and down his chin, "They still taste disgusting – not gonna make me wanna eat them more if they're good for me, Sakura-chan, you know that."

The pink-haired medic-nin remained impassive. "Ah, how could I forget?" She teased before abruptly striking a pose (which included leaning forward as she put her left hand upon her hip while the other hand held a piece of spinach and thrashed it around wildly) at him. "Uzumaki Naruto: defender of Konoha, barer of the nine-tails-"

"-not to mention the greatest shinobi to ever live-"

"-and he drops dead in the battlefield due to lack of iron and a high sodium intake." Naruto grumbled to himself as Sakura took a deep breath, which was no doubt going to be another beginning of a lecture, "Really, Naruto-"

And by this time, Naruto had already tuned her out, spinach stalk flapping around and all.

"Why haven't you seen Itachi yet?" _That _most certainly had brought him back to the present. It was a question that had been nagging him for the past week, basically ever since Itachi had decided to grace Konoha with his presence. Out of everyone, Naruto assumed that everyone would think that he was going to visit Itachi first, because of his attachment of Sasuke; it was only natural to assume so. Instead, he had been avoiding the hospital like the plague, and considering that it had been a week since Naruto brought Sakura her favorite cookies with the little hearts on them, people were starting to notice.

Naruto eyed the piece of vegetable that Sakura was previously waving around. Angrily, he yanked it from its previous station and sniffed it. Wrinkling his nose in disgust, Naruto tossed it back to Sakura and muttered to himself.

The one thing that Naruto didn't get was the fact that everyone just expected him to visit. They all expected him to excessively monopolize all of the Uchiha's time. Why did they even care? Did they not want him dead? Didn't they want the Uchiha name to die with Itachi? Why should Naruto visit him? Why **should** he visit the man that had been chasing him down since he could remember?

The pinkette's eyes creased with worry – this sort of behavior was so unlike Naruto, in fact, it was so unlike him that Sakura wasn't even sure that it was Naruto. Her suspicion immediately dissipated as soon as Naruto began rummaging around the kitchen, looking for some ramen.

The would-be Hokage paced around the kitchen table and plopped himself in one of the two chairs Sakura had in her kitchen. "You sure you don't have any ramen?" Inwardly, he winced, knowing that Sakura was going to have a field day with that one. Meaning that Sakura was going to either throw him into the dirt to have a taste of some worms, or that she was going to throw him out of the window to taste some tree bark. Neither was that appealing to him, especially since Kakashi had mentioned splinters on your tongue was downer when you had a sex-life.

The male decided that now was as good as ever to spare Sakura a sneaking glance; she did not look pleased, especially since Naruto refused to eat the piece of spinach she threw at him. "Naruto," she began sternly, adopting the motherly look that she had perfected so long ago. The blond scrunched his face up at the vegetables and opted not to answer the question Sakura prompted earlier. Of course, he could pretend that he had no idea what she was talking about, but Sakura knew that Naruto wasn't _that_ stupid. "Naruto," she began sternly, and this time her arms were crossed against her chest, posture defining the epitome of agitated and weary. The medic-nin was simply exhausted. How Sakura managed to look like so many things at once, Naruto would never know, but for now, he supposed that he could just ignore her motherly attempts at punishing him, "why haven't you gone to visit him?" she asked again.

"What?" he finally asked, "Why should I? Why should I see the person who killed Sasuke's clan?"

The pinkette looked like she had been slapped in the face. "Naruto, you know the truth, don't you?" Sakura avoided his gaze. "I mean, why wouldn't you?" she mentioned, hugging her arms to herself and shifting from foot to foot. Suddenly, Sakura thought back to the moment she alluded that Itachi was being granted the gift of life. Naruto hadn't acted as surprised as someone should. In fact, he looked like he was expecting it now that she thought of it. "You _do_ know, and you still don't want to see him!"

The man in the orange jumpsuit stared at his longtime teammate, previous crush and best friend. She would do anything for him, and he for her, but Kami forbid Naruto disagree with her on something as serious as this. Of all people, he should be the one who was angry. _He_ should be the one who wanted the last Uchiha to die painfully as long as possible – not the villagers, not Kakashi and most certainly not Danzo.

Danzo. A sour feeling churned in his stomach like bad ramen. Naruto eyed the harsh violet bruise gracing Sakura's face; it was ugly and swollen on Sakura's normally smooth, porcelain skin. Why didn't she dodge him? Why didn't she hit him back? "Sakura-chan." He finally began, the roughness of previously clearing his throat arising again, "Why do _you_ want him alive?"

"Because," she answered in a quiet voice, "Sasuke-kun would have wanted this." Sakura finally looked at him with a gaze that held all the emotions she was unwilling to express at the moment. When she was child, she would have been more than willing to bare her heart on her sleeve, but now as an adult Sakura knew that some things were better left unsaid.

The blond squinted at his teammate but nodded in recognition at her reasoning. Sakura loved Sasuke and Sasuke loved Itachi the most – it was only logical (as Kakashi called it so many times) for Sakura to naturally want to help the last thing reminding her of Sasuke.

"And how does that make him good?" Naruto whirled, the burning fire of anger creeping into his body. "Why did he kill his family? Why didn't he just _walk away_?"

"Because he had no choice, Naruto!" Sakura yelled, "He – he was just a child! A boy of only thirteen! What other choice did he have other than to slaughter or to be slaughtered with them?" The medic-nin in her told her to calm down and to rationalize the situation. Everything she said seemed to be logical and level-headed – it was Naruto who wasn't making any sense.

Taking her sudden silence as permission to speak, Naruto continued on with his argument. "He could have said no, Sakura," Sakura's eyes widened – Naruto didn't add the honorific to her name – he always added the honorific. Was seeing Itachi so troubling to him? "He could have reasoned with them! He could have-"

The sound of Sakura's beeper going off interrupted their argument with a shrill whining. The beeper simply read 'CODE BLUE' in a marquee, and then the patient's room number and stationed nurse, which meant that someone was coding. Immediately, Sakura recognized who was residing in that room. She had to get there quick.

"I have to go." She said tersely, "But this conversation isn't over – you can't run away from everything."

But why didn't he want to see the last remaining piece of Sasuke, his best friend? Because Itachi had his eyes – and looking into them would be like looking into the torture Sasuke went through every day of his life. Naruto did not want to experience that first-hand when he had already lived a life of hell. It may be selfish, but it was true.

* * *

The words _"poor"_ and _"soul"_ were rarely ever used together in Kakashi's dialogue, unless it involved putting the word _"unfortunate"_ in between them and including a certain pink-haired student of his. Those were the words he stringed together in a sentence today when he heard that Itachi was going to be put on trial for his "crimes" against the Uchiha family, the elders and Konoha. Even though he thought he had already prevented this issue by actually using formal documentation rather than orally declaring it. Unfortunately, it seemed that the elders had found some sort of loophole, and now they were trying to get in the middle of Sakura and her patient.

Although, Kakashi had no idea why those three subjects had to be separated when it would have been easily summarized with Konoha, but instead, the elders decided to be the raging bigots that they were and make a point in ostracizing the Uchiha clan and Konoha. He wasn't even going to dwell on the fact that the Uchiha clan was responsible for founding Konoha in the first place; therefore, making the entire argument that the Uchiha clan and Konoha were two separate and unrelated things completely invalid. Then again, mentioning this might just anger them further, and Kakashi most certainly did not want any of that.

"Hokage-sama?" His new assistant called anxiously, as if he might fire her at the drop of his ridiculously huge hat. Technically, he didn't fire the last three assistants, they all just up and quit when he asked them to read _Icha Icha Violence_ out loud. It was literature – a wonderful read – and if they couldn't see that then they should just leave.

So they did.

Kakashi stared at the summons scroll before him. "Yes?"

"Shouldn't I being doing something?" she inquired, eager to please one of Konoha's most famous and strongest ninja.

The Copy Ninja smirked beneath his mask, and anyone who knew him well enough would have noticed; unfortunately for her, his new assistant wouldn't. "There are many things you should be doing, for example, I could make you do my laundry if you want?" The girl made a face. "No? How about cleaning my bathroom?"

The blond squinted at him and frowned. "Have I offended you, Hokage-sama?"

"Offended?" he asked, bemused, "No."

She blushed suddenly. "I beg your pardon, Hokage-sama-"

"You're pardoned." He retorted, smirking beneath his mask. His assistant blinked for a few sparing moments before huffing at him and walking away. She slammed the door to his office shut; that most certainly was not in character for an assistant, especially his assistant. Then, as if they forgot something, they slammed open the door and threw a piece of paper at his desk.

"I quit!"

"Very well." He stated with a wave of his hand. His former assistant fumed, let out an enraged cry and left the room. Kakashi couldn't bother to feel sorry for them; he had more important matters to attend to, such as reading Icha Icha and ignoring the duties of the Hokage.

* * *

The man gulped deeply.

Sakura suddenly let out an enraged cry, effectively frightening the messenger and nearly beheading a nurse that happened to cross her path with a pair of scissors that she had in her hand. "What. Is this?" She asked, shoving the unraveled scroll in the messenger's face.

The messenger got wide-eyed and began to panic silently. "Haruno-san, you're not supposed to show that to me-"

Sakura clenched and unclenched her jaw. The elders and their loyal subjects were really starting to get on her nerves, especially this spineless jellyfish that thought it was appropriate to grace her with his presence. The look on Sakura's face was pure and unadulterated murderous intent. Her fingers curled around the standard office chair behind her in a vice-like grip, and at that moment, the messenger knew it was either get out of the way or die.

"And I'm also not supposed to do _this_!"

Thankfully, being a ninja and knowing Sakura's reputation had its many advantages, and the few people that were in the pathway of the chair managed to dive out of the way before it promptly smacked their heads off of their shoulders.

The chair crashed into the wall and fell onto one of the computers, leaving a nice dent. Then, Sakura began trouncing down the hallway, shoving anyone (except patients) who was in her way.

Sure, Sakura felt bad about destroying the hospital, but she really didn't care right now. She did care, but the anger fogging her brain was preventing her from feeling anything remotely close to remorse. Sakura stomped down the hall purposefully, ready to tear apart anyone who dared to step in front of her and stop her.

By now, an alert message had been passed throughout the hospital telling all staff members to stop Haruno Sakura at all costs. The kunoichi snorted at the announcement – they made her sound like she was a wild animal, not just a very angry woman. A nearby nurse decided that it was appropriate to attempt to stop her. The elders would probably give her a promotion. Sakura inwardly sneered at that. "Haruno-san! You can't just destroy the hospital!"

"If you don't let go of my arm, I'll break it off and _beat you with the bloody stump_!" she snapped. For such a short girl, she sure could be intimidating. The nurse released her arm and opted to send someone to detain her instead. Sakura caught wind of that and rolled her eyes. As if they **could** detain her.

"Hey Sakura, I need to you look over some-" Sakura promptly ripped Kiba's clipboard out of his hands (she didn't even want to ponder on why he was in the hospital, requesting that she look over some order forms, in the first place) and broke it in half before handing it back to him, "-shit, never mind, then." What did he need with medical charts anyway? His sister was the medic-nin, wasn't she? Behind her, doctors and nurses scrambled to salvage what was left of the broken computer.

The medic-nin continued to destroy everything in her path (granted, it probably should have been Kakashi's office and not the hospital) until she reached her office. "Sakura." A commanding and slightly amused voice called out behind her.

Sakura frowned and pivoted on her heel. "Kakashi-sensei, they can't do this-"

"Actually, they can." Kakashi retorted in a way that only the Hokage could. "You're only making matters worse, Sakura." He put a calming hand on her shoulder.

The pinkette shrugged him off. "Did you tell him?" she asked softly as she reeled her anger into check. Sakura felt horrible for her outburst. She was in her twenties; she was not a twelve year old, damnit! One disappointed look from Tsunade-sama and Kakashi, and Sakura knew that she was going to have to issue an apology. At least she didn't have to face Tsunade yet. The medic-nin shuddered to herself; even though she was her mentor, that woman would not hesitate to rip her a new one and then some.

"I was on my way when I caught wind of your outburst," he paused, sending her another look, "but you could if you _prefer_." He sent her a rakish grin, however, she could not see it – Sakura still knew it was there.

"I don't prefer anything, Kakashi-sensei." She replied snootily, heading towards the door, despite the fact that she had just denied his accusations. "I'd appreciate it if you would stop setting me up with former criminals." She sent him a cheeky smile, to which he glared at, and caused her great joy.

Sakura calmly made her way down the hallway, to the elevator and down another hallway until she reached Itachi's room. Assuming that he would want at least a little bit of privacy, Sakura knocked on his door before entering.

"Haruno-san." He murmured quietly.

Sakura mustered a smile. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

Itachi did not reply; he just stared at the IV and other wires that were connected to his body as if to say _"how do you think I'm feeling?"_

The medic-nin cleared her throat awkwardly. "Right. Well, you had hallucinations this morning, right?"

Uchiha Itachi nodded and stared at the ceiling. Sakura nodded to herself and scrabbled on her clipboard. "One." His voice sliced through the silence, startling Sakura and nearly ruining all the notes that she was currently scribbling onto his chart. Ah, so his attending doctor _was_ exaggerating.

"I would like to check up on your eyes, Uchiha-san if that's okay." It didn't matter if it was not okay because Sakura was already at his side, pressing the proper button for lifting up the top half of his bed. The Uchiha nodded and opened his eyes wide enough for her to see.

With her penlight on hand, her breath caught in her throat. He looked so depressed. His eyes were sad and hollow; she had never seen Sasuke's eyes like that before. Granted, she was not sure if she preferred sadness to anger and revenge, but that was not the point. The point was that Itachi was depressed, and he wasn't just enduring the depression that most terminal patients go through, he was mourning the loss of his brother.

It was at that moment when Sakura realized that Itachi really had nothing, that he was truly alone. She put away her flashlight and decided that she could check them later. "Uchiha-san," she prompted hesitantly, "would you like to see the gardens?" Sakura flinched – she was an idiot. _Great_, now she sounded like a woman crushing on another handsome man.

Itachi raised a perfect brow at her. The pinkette twitched. "Uh – you know, not like that!" she stuttered, and regarded Itachi's still raised brow. "I meant, to – uh – to, lift your spirits and such! I figured you could use a little sun." For good measure, Sakura displayed an annoyingly bright smile. He stared at her with a vacant expression and continued to watch her with one until the smile dropped from her face. Wait, was he –

"You are my doctor, are you not?"

Oh, he was _so_ mocking her. And here she thought Uchihas were the serious, calculating type. _At least_, Sakura thought to herself, _that is what Sasuke was like_. Sakura twitched. "Yes." She answered flatly. He lowered his eyebrow back to its proper spot and stared. Sakura would have squirmed under her gaze if she didn't think he was like Kakashi, and Sakura was beginning to think that he was just as sadistic as the current Hokage. Like a true Uchiha, he neither confirmed nor denied her decision.

_But this wasn't Sasuke_, a voice reminded her; Itachi _isn't_ Sasuke.

Sakura moved her eyes to meet his in a challenging glare, but she did not expect herself to stumble in her quest to defy him. The male bore his eyes through her soul, penetrating every part of her being; ripping her open with one single look. It was amazing. Never had she been so captured within someone's gaze. And just like that, he blinked, and it was over. Itachi barely attempted to hide the amused look in his eyes; it was as if he _wanted_ her to know. It wasn't until she noticed the sudden change in his eyes (Sasuke's eyes – they were one in the same, and that was how Sasuke expressed himself) that she realized she was staring. At him, rather intently, actually. The pink-haired kunoichi huffed to herself and rolled her eyes at his look. "I'll go get a wheelchair."

He didn't voice any protests if he had any, and she was glad that he didn't, otherwise she was positive that she would have lodged his head into a doorknob. She ran a hand through her hair, more to ebb away at the frustration building up in her chest rather than to get the rose tinted tangles out. Sakura was angry at herself for allowing herself to be caught staring like that. Thank Kami she didn't swoon or do something as equally as ridiculous as that. Now **that **would have been _awful_ to explain.

As she stomped away to retrieve a wheel chair, Sakura made a point to avoid looking into the eyes of her peers. She knew what she would see. They would look disgusted that she had willingly agreed to this. They would look disappointed that such an aspiring medic-nin would give up her reputation for a criminal. They would view her as a traitor because she was keeping Itachi alive. People talked about her, Sakura knew that, but now she knew that positive words were going to be spared in favor of negative ones.

Yet, as Sakura's shoes squeaked against the floor, she kept her head high because she didn't care.

The attendant froze immediately. Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes and she made her way toward one of the nicer wheelchairs. Wordlessly, Sakura removed a wheelchair from the station and rolled it back to Itachi's room.

They made it to the garden just as everyone else was simultaneously leaving. Sakura suspected that it was because they were afraid of Itachi. Or her. Then again, it could be the combination of the both of them. Even though it annoyed Sakura greatly every time someone sent a worrying look her way, she knew that it was for the best if they were alone.

The garden was lavish, as usual – it also wasn't a garden. Since most patients were forbidden to leave the hospital, let alone allowed to go outside for a few minutes, a greenhouse converted into a conservatory was built to give the patients the nutrients only plants could provide, i.e. fresh air.

The medic-nin wheeled him next to a bench, and offered her hand. "I am fine." He murmured in an assuring voice.

Sakura nodded to let him know that she acknowledged his independence by scooting a few inches over but she remained close just in case his body decided to revolt against him. Itachi made it onto the bench just fine. This left Sakura hovering over him until she awkwardly straightened her back and twiddled her thumbs on the bench beside him. The medic-nin left a good foot between them. _He isn't Sasuke_, she repeated, _and that makes him unpredictable_.

Now that they were alone and seated, there was the matter of breaking the news of the trial to Itachi. Sakura assumed that he would not be pleased about it for various reasons. One of them being that he wanted to die, and peacefully at that, so it really didn't matter if he was going to be put to death – he was going to die anyway if he had anything to do with it.

The pinkette opened her mouth to say something but inhaled a breath instead. Itachi would notice; he was a ninja after all. He didn't motion or even twitch in her direction. Damn, he was really hard to read.

"You are…" she trailed off. Would he get angry like Sasuke or Naruto would? Or would he take it silently like Kakashi-sensei? Or would he do something else? "… Ah, well, the elders thought it was appropriate to-" Sakura cut herself off and sighed to herself. She was acting ridiculous, "- to try you for your crimes against Konoha."

Itachi didn't say anything – he wasn't even moving, nor had he moved an inch since Sakura wheeled him into the conservatory. The medic-nin thought it would be a healing process for him, but perhaps she was foolish to think that aspect. The man didn't even want to live anymore. How was Sakura going to convince him to fight for himself throughout the trial?

The trial – that was going to be a circus.

Sakura was miffed. Itachi wasn't saying anything – nothing at all! "Aren't you going to say _anything_? Grunt? Move your eyes – _anything_?" She inquired, enunciating the last word. "Aren't you the least bit mad or – or _pissed_ at them?"

The raven haired man remained completely stoic as he fixed his gaze on her form. "No." he replied, his tone calm. "But I believe that it is none of your business, Haruno-san." He added; his tone slightly clipped compared to his previous comment.

A bit taken aback at his statement, Sakura continued to stare at him with a doe-eyed expression. She opened her mouth to retort but stopped herself short. He was right. It was none of her business. Sure, he was her patient, and that gave her some access to things that would be otherwise private, but Sakura had no business sticking her nose into his trial or how he felt about it. Yes, she had been pulled into this, but it was only because she needed to understand the situation in order to heal him. Sakura was really only there to make sure that he was taken care of – it was what Sasuke would have wanted. Sasuke would have wanted this, right?

The pink-haired kunoichi observed her ill companion surreptitiously. He was more slender than what could be considered healthy for a shinobi in service, and that was saying a lot. His complexion was gaunt, much like what a living corpse looked like, and Sakura knew that a living corpse looked like. Then there was the fact that he was sick, ridden with a disease that Sakura could not seem to find the cure to. Would Sasuke want this? Did Sasuke want his brother to die like this? No. _No._ Sasuke would not have wanted this.

Sakura stood up from her position and placed her hands upon her hips. "That may be true, Uchiha-san, but Sasuke is my teammate; and since he asked me to take care of you, it's my duty to do so, and that includes this trial."

His stare remained locked on her, and Sakura swore that his lips twitched. "It seems that you are the only person who thinks that, Haruno-san."

* * *

Naruto clenched and unclenched his hands. He had been standing in front of the hospital room for about an hour, and the head nurse was getting annoyed by his antics, or lack thereof, rather. As if she knew that he was thinking about her, the head nurse sent him another pointed look which probably meant something along the lines of _"move it or lose it, kid."_ Well, she could stare at him all day if she wanted to, but there was no way that Naruto was going to set foot into that antiseptic-infested room any time soon.

If he was going to be honest with himself, Naruto would admit that he was nervous. No – he was terrified. He was terrified at the idea of approaching the man that had spent nearly half his life hunting him down. Countless shinobi had been trained specifically to fight off Uchiha Itachi. In the bingo book, he was a kill on sight target – there was no consideration in the matter. If someone spotted Uchiha Itachi, they were to engage until death.

How Izumo and Kotetsu managed to get away with allowing Itachi into the village without at least throwing a good punch or two, Naruto would never know. No doubt they would eventually pay for it one way or another. Though, Naruto couldn't think of a worse punishment other than gate duty or finding lost ninja cats.

Okay, it was now or never. _You can do this._ Slowly, but surely, Naruto allowed his hand to come into contact with the door knob. His fingers twitched in anticipation as a bead of sweat gradually began to form upon his brow. "Naruto-kun?" A barely audible voice beckoned from behind him, causing him to flinch and his hand to jolt back to his side.

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto spun around to greet the ever-blushing Hyuuga with right hand behind his head and the other firmly set at his side. "What, uh, what are you doing here?" The blonde winced at his question. Asking Hinata – a fully trained medic-nin who worked at the hospital from time to time in between missions – what she was doing at the hospital was like asking Sakura why her hair was pink. "I mean, what brings you here?" He cleared his throat, "outside of… outside of… outside-"

Hinata put a hand to her mouth to stifle the giggle that was trying to escape her diaphragm. "Out-outside of-" Hinata became frustrated with herself. It wasn't because she was blushing again, oh no, she was far too used to the sensation to even bother trying to cover it up now, let alone try avoid it. She has known Naruto for practically her whole life – it was ridiculous, whether she was in love with him or not, to constantly stutter around the man. "-Uchiha-san's room?" she finished.

"Yeah…" he trailed off. It was stupid; Naruto had faced Itachi numerous times on the battlefield – he even let the man _shove a crow down his throat_. So why was it so hard to just visit him? Naruto knew the answer, but he didn't want to come to terms with it, not yet.

"I-I," Hinata swallowed the lump that always seemed to form when Naruto was around, "I kn-now that Sas-Sasuke was your friend," she blushed fiercely but thankfully did not faint, however, she was feeling a little light-headed. "He would want this."

After a few seconds of tense deliberation from Naruto's part, the blond boy smiled widely and clapped a hand upon Hinata's shoulder. "Thanks Hinata-chan! You're a great friend!" He pivoted on his heel and put his hand on the latch of the door.

"Y-yeah…" Hinata promptly turned purple and she plummeted to the ground, rather ungracefully, too. A nurse came to her rescue, kneeling beside her and fanning her blush in an attempt to wake up the Hyuuga clan heiress.

The Kyuubi container finally turned the latch on the door and entered the sterile room. Naruto winced at the sight of Sasuke's older brother. His skin was pale with his face sunken. Itachi looked at least ten years older than his actual age. Sakura had mentioned that his health was not the best it could be, but she didn't mention that Itachi looked like a skeleton. It was then when Naruto noticed all the wires and IVs hooked up to Itachi's body.

Naruto wasn't stupid, he knew the signs – he had seen the face of death enough times to notice when it was going to strike. However, it was never quite like this. Being an orphan and shinobi, Naruto never really had a chance to witness the painful death which diseases resulted in.

But he did now.

Itachi was dying.

He was resting now. Naruto would be sure to thank the gods for their favor later. Knowing that Sakura would somehow find out that he did not spend time with the older Uchiha brother, Naruto crossed over to the only chair within the room and placed himself in it.

"You're not awake." Naruto said observantly. Itachi remained asleep, though Naruto wondered if he was just pretending to be asleep to avoid the rather awkward _"you're not gonna steal the Bijuu from my body, are you?"_ conversation.

_Don't forget me._

Out of all the things Sasuke said in his letter, that was the one thing he had requested. He didn't ask Naruto to take care of his brother. He didn't ask him to do anything, really; all he wanted was to be remembered. Oh, Sasuke would be remembered. Whether it would be for his crimes of passion, or the unbelievable sacrifice he made for his older brother.

"If Sasuke knew…" Naruto stopped. What was he supposed to say? He wasn't Sasuke. Sure, he knew Sasuke - and he was probably the closest thing the young man had to a best friend, but Naruto didn't know if this is what Sasuke wanted. Did he want Itachi to suffer? Did he even know that Itachi was going to be like this?

Itachi shifted suddenly, startling Naruto out of his thoughts, and bracing his frail body on his forearms. Wordlessly, he retrieved the jug of water and poured himself a glass. It was a difficult task, but he was grateful that Naruto let him do it himself. The ice was slightly melted, so Itachi suspected that he had been sleeping for a few hours. He also had a new bag of nutrients hooked up; no doubt something that Sakura thought would cure him.

"Sorry!" he said apologetically, "I didn't mean to wake you up!"

Itachi shifted his gaze to Naruto. He lifted the cup to his lips and sipped the water, allowing it to quench his dry throat and tongue. "It is alright." He murmured.

Naruto was a bit taken aback that he was speaking him and not grunting a noncommittal response like Sasuke normally would. _Stop comparing him to Sasuke – he isn't Sasuke_. "So… uh, you're sick?" he blurted out.

To his credit, Itachi didn't even waver, despite his poor health. "Yes."

Then it dawned on him. That's why Sakura wanted him to visit the hospital so much, because this might be his only chance to get closure before Itachi bought the farm. "You're really sick, right?" It wasn't a question; it was a confirmation.

"It is none of your concern." His tone was final, leaving no room for argument.

No. He couldn't let his happen – he couldn't let Sasuke's memory, what Sasuke did for his brother, especially after he sacrificed his life for Itachi – no, Naruto couldn't let Itachi die. Not like this. "You will live." He retorted. "If not for the sake of Sakura's sanity, then for Sasuke."

"I will die, Naruto." Itachi stated with such finality that the Hokage mountain would have been shaken to the core had it not been solid rock. "No amount of words can change that."

Naruto set his mouth in firm, determined line.

"You're wrong."

* * *

TBC

* * *

Beta readers:  
Paisley May  
Ashlee Ash

* * *

A/N: Remeber to review! Send me some feedback and how you think its gonna turn out, or how you would like it to turn out. Great ideas come from the littlest suggestions. Gimme some love, please. :) LOLOLOLOL. I suck. I do. I can't believe "LOLOLOLOL" is in my word dictionary. Anyways. Enjoy! Updates will be regular – I promise! Reviews are love.

Questions to Answer:

**Iruka! Where is Iruka?** Where you left him, I didn't forget about him.

**Why won't Sakura heal her bruise**? Because she wants people to look at it.

**Who is the father of Ino's child?** That's a secret.

Any other questions you have, let me know and I'll answer them the best I can next chapter!


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